Herbie Boyle’s four try haul helps St Michael’s College claim Leinster Schools Junior Cup
The magnificent Herbie Boyle helped himself to an outstanding haul of four tries at Energia Park as St Michael’s College claimed the Leinster Schools Junior Cup title with an emphatic triumph against St Vincent’s Castleknock College.
The younger brother of Ireland senior international Jack, Boyle also served as team captain of a Michael’s side that amassed a total of 11 tries on their way to securing their school’s seventh final victory in this competition.
In his side’s comprehensive semi-final win over Clongowes Wood College, Michael’s hooker Joshua Neville came away with an impressive hat-trick of tries. After expertly picking out his intended target off a fourth minute line-out inside the opposition ‘22’, Neville applied the finishing touches at the end of an extended maul attack to claim a breakthrough score in the Donnybrook venue.
While this five-pointer came about as a result of Sam Dunne booting an early penalty to touch, the inside centre displayed his place-kicking prowess by superbly splitting posts off the resulting conversion.
Castleknock were subsequently within inches of the line after kicking a penalty of their own towards the right-corner, but Michael’s ultimately retained their seven-point cushion by forcing a turnover.
Castleknock fly-half Brian Whelan also dropped a penalty short of the target on 14 minutes, before their Ailesbury Road counterparts eventually doubled their advantage inside the second-quarter.
Four days after his elder sibling picked up his second Ireland senior cap against Italy in Rome, bustling No 8 Boyle powered his way over the Castleknock whitewash for a try that was supplemented by a routine bonus strike from Dunne.
Another massive carry from Boyle provided the south Dubliners with fresh attacking momentum on 24 minutes and while Castleknock did their utmost to avoid the concession of another try, Neville was on hand to touch down for his second of the game.
Dunne supplied the extras once again and he did likewise when Boyle joined Neville in grabbing a second five-pointer off a Ryan O’Sullivan pass. This propelled Michael’s into a commanding 28-0 interval lead and any prospect of a dramatic second half fightback from Castleknock was effectively eliminated when Boyle completed his hat-trick with another typically robust finish four minutes after the resumption.
Michael’s were proving to be utterly relentless in their pursuit of tries and scrum-half O’Sullivan was released by Mark McNally for their seventh with 25 minutes still remaining on the clock.
Castleknock were back within sight of the Michael’s whitewash as the second period progressed, but a handling error ultimately prevented them from opening their account on off another line-out maul.
Michael’s were far more ruthless when it came to finishing off their attacking opportunities, however, and the tireless Boyle was in for his fourth try on the third-quarter mark.
Head coach Charlie Cregan unloaded his bench in the closing stages of the action and with a five-pointer from replacement lock Hugh Draper supplementing additional efforts from starters Austin Currivan (two) and Sebastian Perry, St Michael’s eased towards their first junior decider win since 2022.
H Boyle 4, J Neville 2, A Currivan 2, R O’Sullivan, S Perry, H Draper.
S Dunne 9.
S Perry; M Carroll (H Kirkham 48), M McNally (T O’Leary 46), S Dunne, A Currivan; M McKenna, R O’Sullivan (D Thomas 48); C Farrell (J Gilsenan 41), J Neville (K Coogan 51), H McCafferty (C Synnott 51); O Maybury (H Draper 48), S Kennedy; D Elliott (P Ryan 46), D Fingleton, H Boyle.
S Cunningham (T De Bonis 36); E Flynn, K McGivern, O Mulligan (E Byrnes 54), L Jackson; B Whelan, B Reilly (C Reilly 46); J Mallon (C Corley 36), D Breheny (S Flavin 46), D White (T Anwar 36); H Hanley, D MacMhaoinigh (S Duffy 50); M Quinn (H Kennedy 54), J O’Donnell, M Lynch.
R Shaughnessy (LRR).